Politics / Science & invention
Abdul El-Sayed
born 1984 · epidemiologist, public health official, politician
Metro Detroit-raised epidemiologist and Rhodes Scholar who rebuilt the Detroit Health Department after the city's bankruptcy and became Michigan's 2026 Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate.
- Born
Rochester Hills, Michigan
age 41- Birth name
- Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed
- Also known as
- Abdulrahman El-Sayed
- Detroit years
- 1984–
- Field
- Politics, Science & invention
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Abdul El-Sayed was born in 1984 in Rochester Hills, a northern suburb of Detroit, to Egyptian immigrant parents, and graduated from Bloomfield Hills Andover High School, where he captained the wrestling, football and lacrosse teams. He studied at the University of Michigan, earned a doctorate in public health at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and a medical degree from Columbia, where he later taught epidemiology. In 2015, aged 30, he became executive director of the Detroit Health Department, which the city had largely outsourced during its fiscal collapse; he rebuilt the agency, tested schools for lead in drinking water and launched programs such as free eyeglasses for children. He ran for governor in 2018, finishing second in the Democratic primary, and from 2023 to 2025 led Wayne County's Department of Health, Human and Veterans Services. In 2026 he won the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate, running on Medicare for All, and faces Republican Mike Rogers in November.
Highlights
- Executive director of the Detroit Health Department, 2015–2017
- Director of Wayne County Health, Human & Veterans Services, 2023–2025
- Rhodes Scholar; D.Phil. from Oxford, M.D. from Columbia
- Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate from Michigan (2026)